Various production-related wastewaters arise in many industrial concerns. Normally, wastewater is purified in sewage treatment plants by industrial processes. The so-called nature-like methods have already been used as an alternative to traditional sewage plants for some time now for the purification of small streams or small amounts of wastewater. When using nature-like methods the self-cleaning mechanisms of nature of utilized and moreover, new wet biotopes and green areas are created. In addition, such natural methods bring considerable cost savings.
Natural treatment systems, such as plant (vegetation)-based sewage treatment systems, are already being used in many places. A plant-based sewage treatment system is based on biological symbiosis between specially grown water plants and microorganisms, for example, bacteria, fungi and algae.
Current plant-based sewage treatment systems are mainly operated by private households and communes and are mostly used where connection to a central wastewater purification system is too costly. In these systems the plants are planted on earth, gravel or sand (i.e., in substrate). However, usually the plant-based wastewater purification facilities require relatively large areas, which are mostly not available, especially in industrial concerns. Purely for exemplary purposes reference is made to DE 196 30 831 C2, from which a sewage treatment system is known.
It is therefore desirable to provide a vegetation plant-based sewage treatment system and a method for purifying wastewater which overcomes the problems described above.